Researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry , Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London have investigated the feasibility of a new home-administered treatment for binge eating disorder. The new treatment combines a gentle brain stimulation technique called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) with a training programme that targets unhelpful patterns of attention around food. The findings, published in BJPsychOpen , indicate that this might be a welcome new avenue for treatment.
Binge eating disorder (BED) is a serious mental illness that can affect anyone of any age, gender, ethnicity or background. People with the disorder have recurring episodes of losing control over their food intake, consuming lots of food in a short period of time until they are uncomfortably full. BED is typically accompanied by anxiety and low mood and linked to obesity and metabolic complications.
Psychological therapies are recommended for treatment of BED and about 50 per cent of those who receive treatment achieve a full and lasting recovery. Research has shown that self-regulatory processes in the brain are instrumental in maintaining the cycle of binge eating and innovative approaches such as tDCS and attention bias modification training (ABMT) aim to target these processes. TDCS changes function in the prefrontal areas of the brain by applying a gentle electrical stimulation to carefully selected areas of the brain via electrodes placed on the scalp.
ABMT improves se.
